Company spokesman Sean Rennick was speaking at the first of 20 locations around country Australia where the bush can get to grips with the latest cutting-edge developments – either direct from the communications giant, or its key suppliers.

"It's something of a travelling road show where we can help customers by show-casing the on-going improvement and new products coming out," he said.

"The idea is to show how they can increase their revenues, manage their assets and reduce risks."

Certainly, at first glance, there's a range of gizmos offering seemingly breath-taking advances for those wanting to keep abreast of the information technology revolution.

But Mr Rennick says "every customer is different", requiring an individual chat with customers over a soft drink and a sandwich to help them meet their special challenge.

"We had a transport company in this morning out to try and deal with $1.80/L diesel costs," he said.

"And we've got some products which can help them manage their fleet so trucks are go the most direct route, plus provides monitoring that keeps an eye on engine revs, etc."

In this instance, the Xora system may appeal.

But Telstra's mobile broadband facility looked to be attracting most interest on the day by providing instant internet access at a reasonable speed in the absence of a fixed internet connection.

Able to facilitate video-conferencing across rural Australia, it's winning support for the Next G network which is now claimed to cover 98pc of the population.

"If you are in a regional area and you have this device, plus a little external paddle pop antenna, you can get terrific coverage," Sean Rennick says.

Talk at the Innovation Expo was of the system achieving a 40Mbps capability – up from about 7Mbps when the Next G network was rolled out in late 2006.

But if you're setting up a temporary office in a remote location, then Ericsson's 'office in a box' may appeal when there's no fixed line or fixed internet connection available.

Its high-speed wireless voice and data 'gateway' can instantly accommodate touch-phones, fax, plus computers with the minimum of fuss.

* Register for the Telstra Innovation Expo, plus obtain a full list of locations, on: http://innovationexpo08.telstra.c om.